Hawaii (state)

C

Government and Politics

Hawaii is governed under a constitution adopted in 1950 and put into effect in 1959.

The chief executive is a governor, who is popularly elected to a four-year term. A governor may serve no more than two consecutive terms. The same stipulations apply to the lieutenant-governor, who succeeds the governor should the latter resign, die, or be removed from office. Other elected administrative officials include a 13-member board of education.

Legislative authority is vested in a bicameral legislature comprising a Senate and a House of Representatives. The 25 members of the Senate are elected to four-year terms; the 51 members of the House are elected to two-year terms.

At a national level, Hawaii elects two senators and two representatives to the US Congress. The state has four electoral votes in presidential elections (see Electoral College). Republican candidates usually dominated elections until the late 1950s. Since then, Hawaii has generally voted Democrat in presidential elections, and Democrats have held most local offices.

In the 2006 elections, two Democrats were returned to represent the state. In the 2006 mid-term elections, incumbent Republican governor Linda Lingle beat Randy Iwase (Democrat). In 2006 the state’s senators were Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye (both Democrats).

IV

History

The Hawaiian people, whose ancestors originally came across the ocean from Polynesia in the 1st millennium ad, developed their own society in isolation, but their cultural ties to Polynesia are obvious.

The Hawaiians worshipped three major gods and a host of minor deities. Their places of worship, called heiaus, were constructed from lava rock. The religious and social structure revolved around the concept of kapu, known elsewhere in Polynesia as taboo, which established prohibitive, or restrictive, rules for the various segments of society and created a caste system. Priests and rulers determined proper behaviour patterns for the people. Hawaii’s tribal society transmitted its legends and traditions through songs, dances, chants, and stories.

A

Early European Contacts and the Emergence of the Kingdom

The English explorer Captain James Cook landed on Kauai in January 1778. He named his discovery the Sandwich Islands in honour of his patron, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. (The name later fell into disuse as English influence gave way to US domination.) After a voyage to the northern Pacific, Cook returned to Hawaii for the winter months, but earlier friendly relations with the Hawaiians had deteriorated, and Cook was killed during a punitive expedition against them in 1779.

By 1790, only a dozen years after Cook’s arrival, Westerners had settled throughout the islands. Under the influence of these newcomers, Hawaiian living and dietary habits changed dramatically in the late 18th century, and at the same time, new contagious diseases and alcoholism decimated the native population.

Divided into several kingdoms when Cook arrived, between 1790 and 1810, however, the islands were united politically under the leadership of a native king, Kamehameha I, whose five successors—all bearing the name Kamehameha—ruled the kingdom from his death in 1819 until the end of the dynasty in 1872.

B

Growth of US Domination

Beginning in 1819, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, founded by New England Congregationalists, sent 11 groups of missionaries to Hawaii. The Americans imposed their lifestyle, morality, and religion throughout the islands, teaching the Hawaiians that their traditional way of life was sinful. During the first half of the 19th century, foreign whaling ships wintered at Honolulu and Lahaina, bringing additional influences that threatened the indigenous culture.

Although the Kamehameha dynasty had generally been friendly to settlers from the United States, King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani strove to reverse American influence in the government and economy, hoping to return Hawaii to the Hawaiians. The peaceful coexistence between corporate interests from abroad and the Kamehameha dynasty began to disintegrate in the late 19th century. With increasing US economic involvement, the first sugar plantation in the islands opened in 1835 on Kauai, and pineapple plantations followed later in the century. An influx of Europeans and US citizens, who purchased much of the land, owned the companies farming it and imported Chinese and Japanese labour into the plantation system, further disrupting the traditional economy. At the same time, the islands experienced economic hardship when the 1890 McKinley Tariff levied a duty on sugar.

In a coup fronted by US businessmen, a Committee on Safety, supported by US Consul John L. Stevens, seized control of the kingdom on January 17, 1893, and established a provisional government, headed by Sanford B. Dole, the son of an American missionary. Dole pressed for US annexation of the islands, but the administration of President Grover Cleveland rejected the proposal. The provisional government then created the Republic of Hawaii on July 4, 1894, with Dole as president. The US military soon established positions on Hawaii, such as Pearl Harbor on Oahu.

C

Hawaii as a US Territory

In 1898, when Cleveland’s successor, William McKinley, called for annexation, Congress agreed, and Hawaii was annexed by the United States on August 12, 1898. The territorial government was organized in 1900, and Dole was the first governor. The territory was allowed one delegate who could speak, but not vote, in the US House of Representatives.

Pearl Harbor, the keystone to America’s Pacific defence after World War I, was attacked on December 7, 1941, by the Japanese, bringing the United States into World War II. The next day Hawaii was placed under martial law, and the army governed the territory until October 1944.